Author: Andrew Sharman
Special offer: Andrew Sharman offers IOSH members a 25 per cent discount on up to two copies of the paperback or E-book if they order online before 31 December 2014. Enter the code IOSH25 at the checkout to obtain the discount.
Review by Simon Toseland
Health and safety culture is a complex subject; even deciding on a common definition itself is something that has been widely deliberated. There have been an exhaustive number of books and papers written that claim to hold the secret of how to develop, implement and improve an organisation’s culture. It is a subject that has many multiplexes, many of which themselves have been comprehensively explored.
You can’t blame me then for perhaps initially being rather sceptical of a handbook, of just 144 pages, which claims that it will improve your workplace safety culture. However, I have happily been proved wrong.
From Accidents to Zero tackles a broad range of topics (in 26 chapters from A-Z), but in a manner that tests previously accepted theories and rules about the subject. Rather than bamboozle us with complex graphs, research and jargonised writing, Andrew Sharman asks some very probing questions (at the end of each chapter) which the reader can then apply within their own organisation.
Endorsed by the British Safety Council, IIRSM, NOSA and with a Introduction written by IOSH Chief Executive Jan Chmiel, the book challenges you to think about situations, people and events, and then inspires and guides you to diagnose and remedy your own safety culture deficiencies. It is a refreshing read with an approach that doesn’t impose rigid systems or strategies, which can often be problematic to promote within one’s existing safety structure. After all, doesn’t every workplace vary in size, complexity and culture anyway?
I like the way it has been written – you can just pick it up and read any chapter at random and with each one being just four or five pages in length, it makes it a very easy and digestible format. This book has found its place nicely in a modern world; where for most, finding the time to sit and read for hours at a time is an extravagance. It will travel well in any briefcase, or indeed kindle and so becomes an essential tool for any safety practitioner, however seasoned.
Simon Toseland is compliance services director for Salisbury FM Group
From Accidents to Zero is available to order at: http://fromaccidentstozero.com/
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